Back from supper. It seems that much of my time has been devoted to eating. Well, that and trying to walk in a dignified manner on the train. Which is like walking drunk without the liquor! We are now on the track that the coal and oil trains run on and it’s not at all smooth and most of the time it catches you by surprise! It’s a rock and roll adventure that is for sure. Now we are on the flats and moving fast! I gather that the HVAC system is not up to snuff, but then I always thought all the systems were set to freeze my hoofies off any way. These cars are a bit long in the tooth, I think they replaced the “legacy cars” of the old Railroads when they were taken off the the various runs, they are comfortable but are a bit shabby and need more than their share of attention. ” Ridden hard, put away wet!” Further information says it’s the toilets and showers on the fritz but they were repaired- And from what I heard it sounded like it was “a penny in the fuse box” process- I did not know that Mc Giver worked for Amtrak! ( just a further note, the problem just got worse after we got to Wisconsin at least in my car, or my end of the car- the AC just went out completely and that was that! So we ( me) just put up with it)
Now we are in St. Paul and we are so early that we just sitting in the station biding our time until it will be time to go. We are about an hour early! On the Empire Builder this is a unique situation in that this was train that was famously late for the past few years. But the situations that caused it have been solved more or less. ( Price of oil bottomed out, coal trains now use another track and most of the work on the tracks through North Dakota has been finished.)
From here on out the rail trip is in familiar territory, as I have done parts of this trip a couple of times including the part through the village at Wauwatosa! The Empire Builder follows the old Milwaukee Road through that part of Milwaukee and brings back memories of visits to see relatives.
We passed Ft. McCoy famous in stories of the National Guard and two weeks training that some people did for eight years, your humble self not included but I I did hear about it and was amazed and it is in the middle of nowhere which is the idea ! One thing we can say, Wisconsin is a handsome State lots of farming going on, why they even raise Cranberries up here! And Cheese, well, they don’t raise cheese but cows that make the milk that is made into cheese, just to be a bit clearer!
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